VMware Cloud Community
virtual07
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Really new to Esx - How do I copy my existing vmware machines to esx?

Greetings,

I am really new to esx.

I have been using Vmware server free edition and have created and imported some machines converted with Vmware Converter.

So I have these machines and I would like to import them into Esx.

How do I do that please?

Thanks.

Said

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
admin
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

You can also do this using the Converter.

Otherwise it's a manual process of SCPing the VMDK files to your ESX server, using vmkfstools -i <source.vmdk> <destination.vmdk> to import them to a VMFS volume, then creating a new VM and selecting to 'use existing disk files' and browsing to your imported VMDK files.

View solution in original post

Reply
0 Kudos
5 Replies
admin
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

You can also do this using the Converter.

Otherwise it's a manual process of SCPing the VMDK files to your ESX server, using vmkfstools -i <source.vmdk> <destination.vmdk> to import them to a VMFS volume, then creating a new VM and selecting to 'use existing disk files' and browsing to your imported VMDK files.

Reply
0 Kudos
spex
Expert
Expert
Jump to solution

If you own converter enterprise you can select as target your virtual center without restrictions.

Converter basic allows you to select an esx server as target only when you install converter on the source vm.

Regards

Spex

virtual07
Contributor
Contributor
Jump to solution

Thanks guys,

I used the converter and it worked no swet.

But I have two requests please:

1- Could elaborate on how to do the following since I am truly new to esx:

"Otherwise it's a manual process of SCPing the VMDK files to your ESX server, using vmkfstools -i <source.vmdk> <destination.vmdk> to import them to a VMFS volume, then creating a new VM and selecting to 'use existing disk files' and browsing to your imported VMDK files. "

2- I would like to save some space on my esx server. The pcs I converted have a 30 gig drive but only 5 gigs are used. The remaining is free. When it is converted it takes 30 gig of my esx storage.

Is there a way to trim that to 8 gigs for example to be more realistic?

Thanks

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

>2- I would like to save some space on my esx server. The pcs I converted have a 30 gig drive but only 5 gigs are used. The >remaining is free. When it is converted it takes 30 gig of my esx storage.

>Is there a way to trim that to 8 gigs for example to be more realistic?

In Converter, in the wizard page which allows you to select disks/volumes, you can select the sizes of the new volumes to create.

Reply
0 Kudos
esiebert7625
Immortal
Immortal
Jump to solution

I have several methods documented here....

http://www.vmware-land.com/Vmware_Tips.html#VM1

Reply
0 Kudos